Advances in Control Systems for Construction Manipulators

Fundamental advances in sensors, actuators, and control systems technology are creating opportunities to improve the performance of traditional construction equipment. New capabilities are being developed as well. These improvements in performance and new capabilities are resulting in better safety and efficiency. However, selecting control strategies can be confusing and measuring and predicting their performance can be difficult. This paper identifies emerging control paradigms and describes methods for measuring their performance. Many control paradigms and corresponding example applications are identified, including single degree of freedom control sticks, multiple degree of freedom joysticks, operating and safety constraints, teach/learn capability, resolved motion with internal and external sensors, spatially correspondent controllers, tele-operation, graphical programming and control, and autonomous control. Methods described for measuring performance are based on American National Standard Institute (ANSI) standard tests, applications analysis, and ergonomics. Examples focus on the University of Texas at Austin's large scale hydraulic manipulator and automated pavement crack sealer with the results of performance tests on these manipulators being presented.